Abstract
One of typical fatigue cracks observed in orthotropic steel deck plate is the crack along the weld bead between trough rib and deck plate. It is also reported that the crack sometimes changes its direction suddenly, and propagates to the rib wall and the deck plate. The propagation mechanism of the crack, however, has not been fully investigated. This study carried out a numerical study for the crack at rib-to-deck joint in the orthotropic steel deck plate. Stress intensity factors for three deformation modes were estimated by the FEA and the displacement extrapolation method with the maximum energy release rate criterion. Based on the analysis results, the crack growth mechanism and the reason why the crack changes its direction were discussed.
